


i'm not giving up, i'm giving in

by jacemaia



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, Cheesy, Cliche, F/M, Post 2x14, Softness, also cheesy lines jace would probably never say, maia not being a second choice, there will be cliche rain, very soft towards the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-21 03:37:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11349075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacemaia/pseuds/jacemaia
Summary: Last week was fun and so was today until Jace told Maia what happened in the Seelie Court.





	i'm not giving up, i'm giving in

Maia was still a bit bummed that she wasn’t allowed at the Downworlder-Shadowhunter council. _Bummed_ was the only word she could use without sounding like a petty, pouting brat. She was Luke’s second in command after all she figured she had a right to know what went down behind closed doors.

She wiped down the bar, getting ready for the early night crew to roll in. She was just setting up the chairs, switching around the tables, when the door opened. Maia sighed, rubbing her lower back. “I’ll be with you in a moment.” She definitely needed more help around here.

Maia turned around and froze, the cloth gripped her hands. A soft smirk grew on her face and she crossed the room, raising her eyebrows. “Was an entire week not enough?” _That_ smile grew on Jace’s face as he made himself at home at the bar countertop. Maia, much to her possible dismay, realized Jace had three smiles. She’d seen all three. She’d been the cause of all three.

There was his first smile, which was a mix of a smirk and the tiniest smile. It made him look like he didn’t have any lips, but Maia would never tell him that to his face.

There was his second smile, which was lopsided. It either pulled one way or the other, but at least he had lips when that smile appeared.

Then there was his third smile. Maia figured she liked that one best. It wasn’t huge, but you could tell it was there. Sometimes, he even showed teeth, other times it looked like his lips were being pulled in two different directions.

Maia blinked. She noticed way too much about him for someone who didn’t care.

“It’s a little early for a beer.” Maia said, leaning forward on the bar. She waved her cloth in Jace’s face, before looping it through her apron. Jace did that half laugh, that had a slight hum underneath the surface, but Maia could tell his heart wasn’t in it.

Maia sucked her teeth gently and poured him a beer anyway, putting a coaster under the glass before she set it down. “Talk.” She said, raising her eyebrows. The entire week they spent together wasn’t just sex, though Maia would have appreciated that as well. There was only so much sex two people could have before someone started talking. Even with Jace’s stamina rune and Maia’s wolf stamina, they ended up just sitting in bed, wrapped in each other and the sheets and talked.

It wasn’t as bad Maia originally thought it would be. Despite his looks Jace had a lot to talk about and nothing controversial came up. Nothing about Shadowhunters, nothing about Downworlders. There were touchy subjects like the dark things in their past, which they only touched the surface of. There were lighter subjects, like which books were better than others. Jace was more into sci-fi and mystery, where as Maia was more into the classics and, to Jace’s amusement, romance.

They even ended up reading Jane Eyre, with Maia pressed into his chest, the sheets wrapped around them. Jace’s head was rested on her shoulder and Maia just read to him. She was sure he fell asleep, but he assured her once he woke up he liked it. It just wasn’t his cup of tea. That lead them to drinking tea and laughing as they talked about this thing or the next.

Talking with Jace was nice. It was different. Eventually, if they decided to keep sleeping and talking together, deeper and heavier topics would have to come up. But that week they were fine with Jace standing behind Maia, eating his toast and kissing the scars on her neck and it meant nothing. He knew what the scars were, he didn’t know how she got them and who gave them to her and he didn’t need to.

He wasn’t kissing her scars, he was kissing her neck. She wasn’t kissing his scars, she was kissing his chest. That simple. But with Jace milking his beer, taking the smallest sips Maia had ever seen, she knew it wasn’t that simple anymore. Problem was ‘it’ started to mean something.

“Maia…”  
  
It was that tone of voice. The tone of voice that said ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ before the person actually said it. It was the ‘we need to talk’ tone of voice. It was the ‘I think we need a break’ tone of voice. A break from what? They weren’t even a thing.

“Uh oh.” Maia tried to play it off, leaning back, her arms crossed, but something tugged in her gut. Fear. Fear of abandonment? Fear of being left behind? Fear of being forgotten? Fear of being the second choice? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. It was all of those. “What happened?” She asked, trying to keep her voice level, even, nonchalant. God, she failed.

“I have to tell you something.” Jace said, running his finger around the rim of his glass. Maia narrowed her eyes. The bar door opened and a few people walked in and Maia rose her hand to them in greeting, giving them two fingers wordlessly saying she would be with them in two minutes.

“Well say it.”

Jace took a deep breath and managed to choke out, “I kissed Clary,” before gulping down his beer. Maia had read ‘the world froze’ in books so many times, but now she experienced it. Those people in her bar didn’t exist, the world around her for a moment didn’t exist. It was just Jace and his beer that had stained the top of his shirt due to him drinking it so fast. It was just her and she could feel something inside of her crack.

That’s what she got for having something mean something after _him_.

“Get out.” Maia said, blinking herself out of the daze she put herself in. She had meant to say something else. Something snarky, something that didn’t reveal herself to him the way those two words did. Jace leaned forward, but Maia turned away slightly grabbing the pitcher of beer and coasters. “Get out.”

“Maia.”

Maia froze, turning around, looking him up and down. This was when she should say something snarky, something to put him off, to wound him, to do anything. But, God, she knew too much. She felt too much. She shook her head and turned away, walking over to the vampires. “First round is on the Shadowhunter,” Maia said instead and the vampires looked over at Jace as Maia poured them their beer.

The only thing that kept them from tearing out his throat was Raphael’s order not to harm anymore Shadowhunters. Too much had already happened. Downworlders were still under close watch. Maia pushed all thoughts of the tattooed people out of her mind and her shoulders sunk when the door slammed, signalling Jace’s departure.

\---

Maia rubbed out the kink in her shoulder as she locked up the Hunter’s Moon. She really needed some extra help around the bar. Maybe she could convince Bat to move back to the states, specifically New York, and help her out. Then again, she was happy for him. The states were rough for him wherever he went. She just missed him.

“Maia.”

Maia rolled her eyes, jingling the door handles to make sure the door was properly secured, before she started walking. Maia ignored the blonde who trailed after her like a lost puppy as she turned down the corner, making her way home. “Maia.”

“Should I change my name?” Maia asked, looking behind her. Jace rushed up to her and cut her off, walking backwards as she continued to walk forward. “Go away, Jace. Isn’t there a sister waiting for you? Oh wait she’s not your sister anymore, right? Shadowhunter drama sails right over my head most of the time.”

Jace bristled and Maia kept walking, pushing past him. She considered riding the subway, she doubted Jace had a metrocard, but she wasn’t about to waste money just to get away from him. Plus, the metro took her out of her way, considering she only lived a few blocks away from the Hunter’s Moon. “Let me explain. It’s more than what I said before.”

“Did Clary kiss you?” Maia asked.

“Yes.”

“Did you kiss her back?”

“Yes, but-”  
  
“Then there is truly nothing left to explain. I’m not interested in hearing you say it was an involuntary reaction, Jace.” Maia stopped walking when they got to a crossroad. Jace worked extra hard to elbow people to stay close to her, but Maia was used to the shoving and pushing of the people.

The little white signal turned up and Maia started walking again but as soon as the crowd thinned Jace was by her side again. Maia growled as he tugged her into an alleyway and she nearly choked on the smell of garbage. “How romantic,” She commented drily, looking down at Jace’s grip on her elbow.

“We went to the Seelie Court.” Jace said, moving his fingers down to grip her hand, but Maia slid it out of his grasp. She stepped back and leaned against the opposite wall, trying her hardest to block out the smell of rotting garbage. God, New York was disgusting most of the times.

“And I should care why?” Maia asked, pressing her lips together as her nose started to burn. No. She would not cry over _Clary_ . She would not cry because someone else chose _Clary_ over her. She would not cry because _Clary_ would always be beautiful, angelic, wanted, while she was ‘sexy’, demonic, and unwanted.

Maia turned her face away, pushing her hand across her cheeks. “The Queen made Clary kiss one of us, Simon and me, the kiss she most desired.” Maia laughed. Because that made it so much better. “Maia, Clary kissed me because she desires me.”

“Yeah, I got that part.”

“I don’t want her.”

Maia sucked on the inside of her cheek, her nose burning harder, barely holding back the onslaught of tears this stupid blonde was about to bring. “When she kissed me… I felt nothing but disgust, Maia. I told you because I didn’t want to keep it from you. You only keep things from people if the thing means something. What happened with Clary meant nothing."

Maia took a shuddering breath, but Jace kept going. “I chose you, Maia. In that alleyway, I chose you not Clary. And I’ll choose you every day.” Maia snorted softly, swallowing and turning to face Jace fully. Maybe reading romances to him was finally paying off.

Jace reached his hand out, “Come here, please.” He said softly and Maia rolled her eyes, taking his hand and letting him pull her into his chest. He ducked his head down and pressed his nose against hers, their foreheads tucked tightly together. “You’re not my second choice, Maia. You never will be. You’re my only choice.”

Maia let Jace close the distance between them just as she felt something wet on her cheek. She tossed her arms around his neck and pulled him closer and their lips moved as one and just then, rain drops began to fall. Maia shook her head and she kissed him deeper, before grabbing Jace’s wrists and pushing him against the alleyway wall, pinning his arms up.

The rain made the garbage smell even worse and it ran down their faces.

“I’m not giving up, Maia. I’m giving in.”


End file.
